Groups
Group Strategy Basic group strategy: There are several basic methods of hunting in a group. The first, and simplest, is simply to pick a leader and have him use his tracking to find appropriate Mobs in the area and follow him to the mob and attack it. This is the method most new players tend to use. There are serious drawbacks to this however, with the most serious being that it is very easy to run into aggressive Mobs and end up with a fight on your hands that you cannot win. A safer and more productive strategy is called sitting and pulling. When doing this, the group finds a relatively safe area near where the Mobs they want to hunt spawn. Then the group puller, usually a tank (more on that later), runs out and hits a Mob, preferably with a bow or spell, and runs back to the group with the Mob in pursuit. Then once it gets there the whole group can gang up on it and take it down. This usually lets you only attack one Mob at a time. The third method is similar, and is used when you are hunting a group of Mobs that spawn in the same spots and don't wander, such as an orc camp. In this case, the group sets up just outside the camp and the puller pull the mobs to the group. This differs from the sit and pull method only in that the Mobs in a camp are usually linked and when you usually get more than one to attack at a time. Aggro Aggro: To really understand how to work in a group, you need to understand the concept of aggro. Mobs have an aggro list that determines which characters they dislike the most at any given moment. The player highest on its list is the one it will try to attack. As a player you can move up that list by doing certain things to that mob or around it. Attacking a mob moves you up on its aggro list, so does casting offensive spells on the mob or casting defensive and healing spells on anyone it considers an enemy. Taunt is a skill given to tanks to deliberately annoy a mob and move yourself up its aggro list, and is thus a very important skill to use in combat. The key to playing in a group is to keep the tank on top of the mob's aggro list and everyone else lower down on that list. If a wizard, for example, starts blasting the mob as hard as it can it is going to notice it and may decide that the wizard is more of a threat to it than the warrior in front of it, causing it to disengage the warrior and run to attack the wizard. Healers must also be aware of the aggro factor of their heals. The mob may notice that the player it is fighting seems to keep getting healed and decide that it is better off killing the healer first and then worrying about the warrior with his sword. This can be even more complex when there are more than one mob. It may be that the one fighting the tank is really mad at him for all the damage he is doing while his friend has noticed the Cleric in the background casting heals and decided to attack him instead of the tank. It is the job of the tank to keep all aggro on himself and keep them off the other players. Barring that, the secondary melee should try to get the aggro onto themselves and off the healers and casters, since the groups survival depends upon the healer keeping everyone alive and the caster is the one who can best pull the group out of a tough situation by nuking the mob as hard as he can to try to kill it fast before it kills everyone else. Attacking Mobs in a Camp: Mobs come in two categories. There are the ones who wander aimlessly around the area and can easily be pulled to the side and killed one at a time. Then there are the ones that are grouped in a camp. Camped mobs are generally linked together and attacking one causes others in the camp to attack you as well. As a general rule, the best loot in the game is usually found on camped mobs. In order to attack a camp, you need to learn how to break it. Once a camp is broken, it is often easy to pull the mobs one at a time by getting them as soon as they spawn. How you break a camp really depends upon which classes you have with you. Often you can pick off stragglers at the camp perimeter and eventually reduce the camp to a small enough number that you can handle an all out attack, but this is really not the preferred way to do it. If you have an Enchanter or Bard, the best method is to assign a main tank that everyone will assist on and then pull the camp and have the enchanter or bard charm the adds while the group concentrates on killing one mob at a time. Another option is to have a ranger or druid cast harmony on the potential adds before you pull. This method requires speed and timing to do right, but can be very effective. A somewhat less effective way is to have a caster with root cast the root spell on the adds. Since root is more likely to fail, this is not the best option. Necromancers and Shadowknights can control the adds by using a fear spell to make them run away. The drawback to this is that if they run near any friends they will bring them along when they return. however, you break the camp, once you do you are in good shape. Keep eating and drinking between battles and make sure that you pull each Mob as soon as it pops and you should be able to control that camp from there on. Do's and Don't 1. Refrain from inviting two tanks into a group! Tanks; Pal, War, Sk. 2. Refrain from inviting two Healers into a group! Healers; Sha, Clr, Dru. 3. Refrain from inviting two Mana givers into a group! Mana; Brd, Enc, Nec. Note; this one rule can bend a lot, mana givers serves multiple purposes and therefore can work together very well. 4. Do not invite a mana-bard and Alcemist into same group, unless it is ok with them. A Bard mana song somehow interferes with the Alc's mana potions. 5. Keep the levels of your group members within close range of each other. 6. It may be helpful to have your Tank be 1-3 levels higher than your healer and the rest of the group. This will help with potential argo-pulling problems. 7. If you are going to be a group leader, that is, the one who will be inviting others to your group, try to get a camp first before you form your group!!! I for one hate it when I get invited to group, just to be asked, 'where you all want to hunt'!!! A group leader is suppose to be a LEADER! 8. Do not form a group if you know your are going to be quitting before too long! It's just rude! 101 ways groups fall apart! Im ganna start this thread on why people think groups fall apart, so people stop doing these things. I'll start it off: 1- Getting a group when you have little time left. Especially you healer and tanks! It is pointless to get those 2 mobs worth of XP and leave, becuase when they can't get another healer/tank, someone just sprayed some "Group-be-gone". 2- Someone saying the XP is nerfed and you should go elsewhere. This usually takes to long to find another camp, and should not be said. 3- Fighting over dropped rares. Don't do it! People do get mad and leave groups. 4- Trying something you know you can't do. (Ex- Going to a level 40 camp at level 25) After people die, they may leave. 5- Demanding someone do something. (Ex- "Pull faster, tank!") They may tank it was to hard and leave. Its easier to ask nicely. 6- Going to sell and bank, commonly refered to as dumping, becuase the only person that ML'd was full, and everyone else wants the 2 items they looted to be sold. Some people may feel the grind or over, may not feel like going back, or decide they want to quest. Different Types of Groups Regular Grp; A Tank, Healer, and two DD (melee or casters). Pet Grp; Four petters of any kind. No-Tank Grp; 3 DDs and a healer. No Healer Grp; 3 DDs and one Necromancer. Mank Grp, Monk is the tank, DDs and a healer. Clank Grp, A Cleric(made for tanking), and DDs. Crusaders and an Alc Group up 2-3 Crusaders and an Alc. These groups usually exp at TFG or Desert Bandits.What happens is this, a Crusader can basically pull as many mobs as he wants to w/o dying for 1 minute, which is definately enough for an AoE alc to kill them. So in this 1 minute the group can kill 25 Desert Bandits or 30+ TFG. Well, you may say so what, the recast is 10 mins. But imagine 3 Crusaders doing this...thats 75 Desert Bandits in 10 mins, just under 38 million exp not including Chef Lukkif items!!! Not only that but, the group is pretty much active for a grand total of 3 minutes to pull this off. It requires minimal effort to rake in this rediculous amount of exp. A Crusader/Alc group can get over 228 million exp an hour, spending only 18 mins actually being active. While say a Spellbinder/Resist Cleric/2 Damage Dealer group used to get significantly less than this grinding Lava's with a charmed pet. Kiting Alchemist Groups AoE path alchemist with natural movement rates can do the "kiting alchemist". Go to bandits, AoE's 5-6 of them, runs in a circle while throwing his AoE pots, and have the rest DD's, usally another aoe path alc, throws too and that equals such good xp there.